Oskar von Hutier

Oskar von Hutier (27 August 1857-5 December 1934) was a general of the German Empire during World War I. He was the man who invented the tactics of sturmtruppen ("stormtroopers"), German troops who were influential in winning the Battle of Caporetto.

Biography
Oskar von Hutier was born on 27 August 1857 in Erfurt, Saxony, Prussia, and he came from a military family. In 1875 he was commissioned into the Imperial German Army, and in 1911 he became Quartermaster-General of the German Empire. At the start of World War I, he commanded a division on the Western Front against France, and he led the German 1st Guards Infantry Division at the First Battle of the Marne and in April 1915 he was sent to the Eastern Front. On 22 April 1917 he took over the German 8th Army, and on 3 September 1917 he captured Riga in present-day Latvia from the Russian Empire. His cousin Erich Ludendorff sent Hutier to the Western Front, having been impressed by his successes. He led the German 18th Army in the Spring Offensive of 1918, but the Hundred Days Offensive forced his army back. In November 1918, after the war's end, Hutier was welcomed into Germany as a hero. He agreed with his cousin that Germany had been "stabbed in the back", and he led an officer's corps until his death in 1934.